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This past weekend, uOttawa Quidditch travelled to Kingston to compete in the second inaugural Canadian Cup, which this year doubled as the Canadian Regional Championships, a chance for Canadian teams to compete for one of 3 bids to represent Canada and their schools at World Cup VI. The University of Ottawa’s team placed second, losing to McGill University (returning champions of last year’s Canadian Cup).

We did it, kids!

We went down the night before, getting a surprise phone call from our alumni keeper Colin in Japan that we passed around the bus (everything we dooooooooo we do it for youuuuuuuu) and surprising one very frazzled East Side Marios waitress who was A) the only server there, and B) clearly not expecting 35+ people to turn up at 9:30pm. To the East Side management: she deserves a raise.

The day began with wins over McMaster (200*-10), Fleming College (140*-20), and Guelph (270*-30) to emerge out of pool play as the #1 seed, with a point differential of 550+. The team then proceeded to the semi-finals against Queen’s. Although Queen’s participated in last year’s Canadian Cup in Ottawa, this year’s team was almost entirely a new squad. The game began with multiple penalties on both sides, and looked to be a rough game. uOttawa (our own squad quite new, with 48% of our competitive team either in their first year of university or their first year playing quidditch) settled down and powered through to finish 70*-10, securing our spot in the finals: in the second half of the game, Queen’s rarely advanced past midpitch.

Michelle Ferguson, Tiniest Badass

The final game against McGill University was relatively short due to a fast snitch-snatch by Plunger, McGill’s experienced seeker, and ended 90*-10 for McGill. Our entire team would like to congratulate McGill not only on their win, but on their good sportsmanship and a game played both physically and fairly. We look forward to playing them again, and are excited at the possibility of travelling to Florida with them (a decision that the team will be attempting to solidify in the coming weeks; World Cup VI is scheduled for April 13-14 during uOttawa’s exam schedules, but our team is pursuing a number of strategies in order to attend).

Joining uOttawa and McGill in the top 3 are our good friends at Carleton University Quidditch, who not only gave McGill a run for their money in their semi-final game (90-90* at the end of regular time, and 140^-90* at the end of overtime) but played as tense a consolation match as we’ve ever seen, winning 50^-40* over Queen’s in overtime. (There may have been a giant glomped circle of ourselves and Carleton chanting “Ottawa! Ottawa” at the end of the game. We’ll never tell.)

All in all, the Canadian Cup was a fantastic experience – a well-run tournament that ran on time with a bevy of dedicated snitches and referees and saw some fantastic hospitality from Queen’s in the form of bands and fling dancers. Our team came into its own after months of hard practicing, and was well-supported by our legions of travelling fans (we might be biased, but we think they’re the best).

Among our fans’ many excellent qualities: making personalized signs.

Although the entire team and horde of fans performed excellently this weekend, we’d like to mention a few stand-out players: newcomer Nick McKnight was both a Chasing force to be reckoned with and a stellar new seeker, catching 4/5 snitches on-pitch (run back to the pitch by our darling Kera Lanouette) on Sunday. Another newcomer, Brian Wong, scored a fantastic set of goals in a row against Guelph, and brought undeniable energy to the pitch. Chaser Cam Buie put forward a fantastic effort both offensively and defensively, our beaters were as on-point as we’ve ever seen them (we literally can’t pick a beater to spotlight: they are all incredibly strong), and Keeper Jamie Lafrance, well. Jamie Lafrance:

We’re looking forward to the coming regional championships to see who we’ll be cuddling up to at the World Cup in April – best of luck to all teams, and may you be both fantastic athletes and good sports.